Tuesday, January 5, 2010

1.5.2010 - News

THR: A Simple Noodle Story
Bottom Line: An American Mid-west noir thriller gets a regional Chinese comic treatment.

Screen Daily: Woochi (South Korea)
Director Choi Dong-hoon, responsible for previous hitsTazza: The High Rollers (2006)and The Big Swindle(2004), is famous locally for his narrative inventiveness, linguistic wit and skill in handling ensemble casts. However despite its distinctive characters and generally strong acting performances (particularly by Yoo and villain Kim Yoo-suk), Woochi lacks the smarts and drive of his previous work. It is also much too long at 136 minutes.

CRI: Jiang Wenli Hangs Directing Hat after Debut

Writer/cartoonist Tony Wong will adapt a popular comic to make Dragon Tiger Gate 2 in 3D. The film will feature Wu Zun but Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse will not return as he cannot afford their fees. (Sina)

CRI: TV Version of 'The Myth' Aired


Huang Yi is filming Billy Chung's comedy 'Martial Arts Comedy Biography' which also costars Cherrie Ying.





Apple Daily Action News animated news report on Francis Ng's bakery brawl (ESWN)


These animations are the latest brainstorm of Jimmy Lai, the founder of Next Media, which launched what are now the most popular Chinese-language newspapers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Reflecting on how newspaper stories have more background about events than television news reports have, as he told me last week, "I thought, hey, why not make those missing images of the background into animated images?" He hired 160 software developers and engineers in Taiwan, who spent more than two years perfecting the technique. Reporters describe their interpretation of what happened to engineers and actors who serve as the models for the animation. Mr. Lai says that his team can create an animated video in 90 minutes, producing about 20 a day.

Mr. Lai says there's no confusing the animation with real video. "The avatars are still quite wooden looking," he said, though he plans to make them more realistic as the technology improves. Still, viewers need to be discriminating, keeping in mind the difference between enactments and real footage. (ESWN/WSJ)


Kelly Chan went to Jilin earlier to shoot a MV with Mickey to promote a new single which was released yesterday.






Bus slanging match ends in court fight for kung-fu master

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

re: animated Francis. Thank you so much. No words to describe the awesomeness.

I'm impressed to see Francis' animation join Tiger Woods, suicide bombers and Chinese pirates. Although I'm still waiting for the real security camera footage.

dleedlee said...

I'm hoping one of the US networks pick up on the idea! Can you imagine the Michael Jackson story animated. 8)